Teaching Associates

Billy Grierson

Billy Grierson is an experienced process engineer. He worked for many years with Ciba and BASF not just solving technical problems but more importantly developing problem solving and innovation methodology so that colleagues did not just have resolution of the immediate issue but were equipped to resolve future problems and to capitalise on the opportunities that could arise from the questions they faced.

Increasingly Billy moved from managing individual projects to development and training of staff across the company in ideation and innovation. Now an independent consultant he can apply his skills to support your team in systematically solving problems and making decisions. Using a “toolbox” of techniques to study the issue, generate ideas, select potential solutions and develop these ideas into concepts for implementation, he will tailor his approach to the problem or decision at hand to give you the best support for ideation, concept development and solution implementation. Billy also uses this toolbox to advise businesses on the development of new products and processes and to improve how they approach innovation.

Billy is PMP certified, holds a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington School of Business and is recognised for Advanced Achievement by the International TRIZ Association. His PhD is in Chemistry

Keith Brocklebank

Keith Brocklebank has had a wide ranging career since first graduating in Biochemistry from Bath University.

He has considerable experience in marketing and sales from owning his own menswear store to leading a series of excellence programmes for Pfizer across the UK, Europe and Canada. He drove key knowledge strategies across commercial operations and developed the Field Force Effectiveness Programme. Keith worked on developing good practice in customer targeting and ethical standards in marketing and sales.

Keith’s strong views on doing things the right way has led to further projects around the world with humanitarian groups developing leadership and policies for sustainable programmes.

Using his management and scientific skills he has led a variety of pharmaceutical programmes including the competitive landscaping of early stage projects, the introduction of new products to the market using novel methods and improved strategic effectiveness , the development of Key Opinion Leader programmes and corporate revisioning

As a teacher he has delivered an ethics module for theology students in Wales as well as a variety of subjects including marketing, managing strategic change, leadership, project management, research skills and strategic thinking in healthcare management at the Greenwich School of Management. He has more than 10 years experience of teaching masters level courses. Courses delivered to industry have also included training in software implementation.

Chris Shilling

Chris Shilling is an independent consultant providing innovation planning and management services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. With 20 years’ experience across research, development and commercial disciplines, Chris provides a unique combination of skills and experience to clients in helping them understand and plan innovation opportunities for new and existing technologies.

Chris joined Pfizer in 1997, spending 8 years in Development project management where he contributed to the development programmes of 6 successfully commercialised medicines. He then worked in the cross-divisional Business Innovation Unit reporting to the head of Development and the CEO’s office, managing a portfolio of research projects evaluating new process and commercial models for the pharmaceutical industry. At this time, he also chaired Pfizer’s internal Innovation Council.

Since 2007 Chris has worked largely as a consultant, providing innovation and project management services. Major projects include planning the Phase 3 programme for Amarin’s successfully marketed Vascepa, implementing a global pricing and reimbursement knowledge management system for Novartis, designing an innovation process for Merck Serono, implementing a project management framework for DNDi, and developing the communications strategy for IMI’s DDMoRe consortium.

Chris has developed and helped implement innovation plans for clients including THOR Photomedicine Ltd., Pharma Diagnostics NV, King’s College London, the Paediatric HIV Treatment Initiative, PSC Europe and a Formula One motor racing company. As an industry subject matter expert for GH Associates, the UK’s leading EU grant proposal support company, and has assisted in preparing more than 10 successful FP7 and H2020 proposals.

Chris is the programme committee chair for the European Industrial Research Management Association, a lecturer for the Quality in Scientific R&D programme at Cranfield University, and a business mentor for the Oxford University-linked BioStars programme. He is a regular speaker and chair for industry conferences and training events.